Human Performance Toxicology Focus of 30th Garland Lecture April 15

Free annual chemistry lecture at 1:30 p.m. in Peacock Auditorium

Dr. Sarah Kerrigan, a forensic toxicologist and associate professor in the College of Criminal Justice and Arts and Sciences at Sam Houston State University, will serve as the invited lecturer during the 30th Annual Garland Lecture at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, April 15 in the Peacock Auditorium of the Biology-Earth Sciences Building.

Kerrigan’s lecture, “Human Performance Toxicology: Drugs and Driving,” will concentrate on the impact of both illicit and therapeutic drugs on human performance, or behavior from a forensic perspective. The lecture will focus in particular on the effect of drugs on driving.

The first Garland Lecture is named after Dr. Fred M. Garland, who chaired the chemistry department at A&M-Kingsville from 1950 to 1975. Garland received the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation Award for distinguished teaching at the college level in 1977. That same year, the Fred M. Garland Endowment Fund was created from the donations of former students and colleagues. It was thanks to Garland’s leadership and dedication the chemistry department first received certification from the American Chemical Society. Three of the Garland Lecturers have been Nobel Prize recipients and other Garland Lecturers have received national acclaim from the American Chemical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, and other prestigious societies.

The Garland Lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, call 361-593-2914.

About Dr. Sarah Kerrigan

Kerrigan received initial training as a forensic scientist in 1990 at the Scotland Yard Forensic Science Laboratory in London. She has served as bureau chief for the New Mexico Department of Health and Scientific Laboratory Division, where she was responsible for the state’s blood and alcohol program, in addition to forensic drug and alcohol-related medical examiner casework. She has also served as a forensic toxicologist at the California Department of Justice in Sacramento; member of the Board of Directors of the California Association of Toxicologists and has chaired several committees for the Society of Forensic Toxicologists and American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

A published researcher, Kerrigan has contributed original toxicology research to various text books. Kerrigan was appointed to the Texas Forensic Science Commission by the Attorney General in 2007 and to the Forensic Science Education Programs Accreditation Commission in 2009. In addition to serving as a professor of criminal justice at Sam Houston State University, she also is the director of the forensic science program at the university and serves as the laboratory director of the Sam Houston Regional Crime Laboratory in The Woodlands.